At 14 years old, Japan’s Coco Yoshizawa recently became the youngest medalist at the 2024 Summer Olympics, using a skill she learned in elementary school to climb to the winner’s podium. Coco and her peers are proving on the international stage that it’s never too early to achieve incredible feats. The Olympics aren’t the only place we can look for young, motivated leaders.
A recent global study by the We Are Family Foundation (WAFF), conducted in part with support from SAP, shed light on the complexity of incorporating intergenerational collaboration into projects and highlighted how young people in particular are not given the opportunity to take the lead and contribute. Young people are often not discussed about the world’s unprecedented challenges, despite having a unique and personal perspective on shaping the future.
People under 30 make up more than half of the world’s population. Why are these important voices being blocked?
Laalitya Acharya is an impact entrepreneur who invented an AI-powered device that detects water pollution in seconds. In parallel, she founded an organization that aims to find the intersection of research, advocacy and policy work, using summits to discuss actions to scale clean water solutions. She continued to actively work to close the water gap by attending events like COP28 as a delegate for the We Are Family Foundation – all before she turned 20.
Age hasn’t stopped any of these successful young people from taking action. In fact, in most cases, being young can actually be an advantage. Young people embody the qualities needed to lead in an increasingly unpredictable and technology-driven era – from the determination to be a leader in their own sport to implementing meaningful change on climate issues.
In honor of International Youth Day 2024: Here are three reasons why we should never let age become an obstacle to realizing compelling ideas.
1. Young entrepreneurs offer new perspectives
Young impact entrepreneurs like Laalitya are guided by their life experiences and insights, shaped by a rapidly changing global landscape and unprecedented access to technology. Laalitya’s innovation, for example, was born out of a family trip to India, where she was inspired to seek solutions when she herself was affected by contaminated water. With her interest in AI, she wanted to find a unique way to combine technology with advocacy to “change the shape of what we mean by water advocacy.”
When given the opportunity, young people can bring groundbreaking ideas and challenge traditional models of engagement at the corporate and policy level. Companies like SAP are capitalizing on this unique insight with initiatives like Youth to the Table, where they give young leaders the opportunity to challenge the status quo in conversations with key partners at events like COP and the World Economic Forum.
2. Young innovators demonstrate a strong sense of resilience and adaptability
In an era marked by constant change – from the COVID-19 outbreak to developments in AI – young people have an innate ability to cope with uncertainty and take a dynamic approach. While the path to entrepreneurship is rarely easy, the technology-driven acceleration gives them an urgency that forces them to persist and leverage the resources available to them in the moment.
Renata Koch Alvarenga, a young activist from Brazil, realized the power of accessibility when she founded EmoderaClima at age 22. The initiative seeks to address the climate crisis from a gender equality perspective in the developing world and offers an online database of multilingual educational content to empower young people in Latin America affected by climate change. As it seeks to make resources accessible to all, it must adapt to the ever-changing business and political conditions in Brazil. Young people like Renata use resources like technology to adapt to challenging environments, highlighting their unique strengths as leaders.
Thanks to technology, young entrepreneurs and activists not only have a louder voice than ever before, but they also have access to a community. Whether it’s the community they were born into or the community they created themselves, young people are more likely to support the causes and people they care about than previous generations. According to a study of young changemakers by The Possibilists in partnership with SAP, 92% of respondents are motivated by the opportunity to make a difference in their community.
Young people know how to get involved in their cause or community. Innovators like Larissa Napoli (27), coordinator and member of Quebrada Agroecológica, a project that promotes water security and agroecology in several Brazilian communities, are driven by a sense of dedication. Similar to the 70% of Gen-Z who got involved in social or political causes in 2021, she and her colleagues started locally and scaled their initiative using digital channels. Their passion leads to meaningful actions that can influence key decision-makers.
SAP believes in the power of collaboration with young entrepreneurs and innovators. Through partnerships with ChangemakerXchange, Generation Unlimited, The Possibilists, and We Are Family Foundation, we gather insights and promote initiatives that create inclusive change. From having youth delegates participate in COP28 to showcasing young changemakers at SAP events, we aim to give young innovators a valued voice.
If you want to learn more about how to close the generation gap, the We Are Family Foundation study offers interesting insights into the competitive advantages of working with young leaders.
We invite you to join us in this work. Let us inspire future solutions through meaningful solutions that remove age as a barrier and ensure that everyone’s opinion is valued.
Selina Henn is Strategy and Operations Associate for Corporate Social Responsibility at SAP.
